There’s no doubt that principals have a profoundly stressful career as the leader of a school, responsible for typically dozens of teachers and hundreds of students. Much of the focus has been put on teacher burnout, but the pressure of long hours and competing priorities typically travels up the ladder and rests on the shoulders of principals as well. Any principal can tell you that their days are often full of a stream of teachers coming and going, and the burden can quickly become overwhelming.

The incentive for keeping good principals is evident. A recent study showed it often costs more than $75,000 to replace a principal. Mind you, this doesn’t include their salary. This is simply the cost of recruitment, training, mentoring, professional development, and all the other factors that go into hiring principals. Therefore, the focus should be on finding ways to manage the everyday stress and pressure that comes from being the leader of a school.

Find Ways to Save Time

One of the main complaints from principals is that there simply isn’t enough time in the day to address all the work they need to get done. Finding ways to save time on certain tasks is essential. One solution is to take advantage of technology to cut out busywork such as creating reports, checking on overall classroom progress, and sending home report cards. All these tasks can be done automatically and with the touch of a button using the right digital curriculum implemented school-wide.

Focus on Teacher Empowerment

When a teacher comes to his or her principal with an issue, they’re often looking to offload an issue they don’t feel equipped to handle. Instead of collecting these issues until the principal becomes overburdened, it’s important to empower the staff to solve problems as well. When a teacher surfaces an issue, the typical steps are to first have the teacher fully describe the issue, assign a person to deal with the issue, recommend a course of action, then check up on the issue at a later date and readjust as needed.

Assign Priorities and Goals

Teacher burnout quickly leads to principal burnout. When a school has too many competing priorities, it becomes impossible to focus on any one goal. By identifying school-wide priorities each year and supporting these goals through focused and long-lasting professional development and regular check-ins, large improvements are much more likely. These goals can be easily supported through technology to track progress and encourage collaboration.

Find Your Stress Relief

Some stress is inevitable. In a high-stress career as a principal, it’s important to find a source of stress relief. This could include taking a walk and visiting some of the classrooms, listening to music, trying out new educational games, taking an art break, spending time with staff outside of school, or even just planning regular vacations. Whatever your stress relief, recognize when stress is building up and don’t be afraid to combat it by taking a break from work, even if it’s just a 5-minute break in an empty classroom.

To learn more about how Wowzers K-8 Online Math program can help reduce stress and save time school-wide, contact our team or try a free trial.

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